Dairy Queen Days offers coming of age story in southern textile town

“Dairy Queen Days” opening Friday at the Joy Performance Center could have been set in Kings Mountain.

“What’s interesting about it to me is that it’s set around an old mill town and the decline of textiles,” said director Andy Neisler, whose involvement with the Kings Mountain Little Theatre dates back to 1997, when his brother, former Kings Mountain mayor Scott Neisler , talked him into performing in the show “Forever Plaid.”

Written by novelist and playwright Bob Inman, a former WBTV News 3 anchor, the play centers around 16-year-old Trout Moseley (played by 15-year-old Kings Mountain High School student Jackson Champion), whose 300-pound minister father hops on a motorcycle and rides off to Texas on Easter Sunday morning. His mother Irene, who doesn’t appear in the show, is already down in the Atlanta institute, where she’s been hospitalized for severe depression.

“Trout can’t figure out if he’s done something to cause this problem,” Neisler said. “He’s also upset because they’re not helping him out, but they can’t help themselves.”

He’s moved to a small Georgia mill town that bears his family’s name. His Aunt Alma (Teresa Dixon Williams), who runs the mill, constantly reminds him about what it means to be a Moseley in Moseley. His father and Alma’s brother, the Rev. Joe Pike (played by Dixon Williams’ real life brother Greg Dixon), struggles with a theological crisis.

The family name is also a problem for Trout in his new home.

“He’s the rich kid in town even though he’s not rich,” Neisler said. “People perceive that he’s got the advantages.”

He finds solace working behind the counter of the local Dairy Queen, where he strikes up a complicated friendship with Keats Dubarry ( Maddie Spurling, a student at Crest High School in Shelby), the daughter of an angry mill activist.

The other players in the show are Trout’s Uncle Cicero (Tom Bennett), who is the town’s policeman and the hardware store owner, as well as the show’s anchor; Grace (Carol Berger), the church choir director who appears to Trout to be too familiar with his father; and Herschel Bender (Jim Champion), the owner of the Dairy Queen.

To give its DQ some local flavor, stage designers are including a painting of an Inuit girl holding a soft serve cone, similar to the one found at the Dairy Queen on Wilkinson Boulevard in Charlotte, Neisler said. Because there are 15 different scenes all in different locations in the first act, the stage will be split into sections, with the show taking place on one side while the other side is changed.

Producing a play written by Inman, who’s well-known throughout the region and who will be in attendance for the Oct. 20 show, is what attracted him to the show, Neisler said. The focus on textile life and mill towns should appeal to local audiences, he said.

The Kings Mountain Little Theatre production of “Dairy Queen Days,” written by former WBTV News 3 anchor Bob Inman,” takes place at 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday, at 3 p.m. Sunday, and at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 19 and 20 at the Joy Performance Center, 202 S. Railroad Ave., Kings Mountain.

Tickets are $10 adults and $8 students/seniors. The Oct. 20 performance is a special fundraising show that will include an appearance by Inman. The theatre is offering special tickets for a “Meet and Greet” reception with Inman after the performance for $15 with a previously purchased ticket or $25 for tickets to the play and the reception, which will include beverages and desserts.

Reservations for performances will be accepted but must be made 24 hours in advance. For more information, visit www.kmlt.org or call 704-730-9408.